Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Many of you know that I'm part of the Troy-Bilt Saturday 6 Team, now in its second year. As a part of that team, I get to test and review some Troy-Bilt garden equipment of my choice. Even before I became of part of this team, I was a fan of Troy-Bilt and did some testing and reviewing of products that they provided for me free of charge, in exchange for any suggestions I might have as an actual consumer of their products.

A few years ago, some other garden bloggers and I tested a string trimmer and our experiences and comments led to a redesign of the product in an effort to improve it. Now that is how a testing and review program should work. Everyone wins: Troy-Bilt, me, and the consumer.

One of the products I received this year was the TB554 Triple Blade Gas Lawn Edger. I chose this edger because of its beveling capabilities. I've always admired the sharp knife-edged borders I've seen when touring other gardens and wanted that for my own garden beds. I believe the beveling helps keep the grass from moving in on the garden quite so quickly, because I can cut the roots back a bit, under the grass edge, rather than just making a straight perpendicular cut.

My first concern with this edger is one that I always have with products that have a pull-start. Will I have enough strength to pull it quickly enough to get it started? With some products, I simply do not, and I need my husband to do it for me. With the edger, I could do it myself. Yay!

Push the button three times to prime the engine before pull-starting.

I set the blade at the sharpest angle (three available) it would allow and at the deepest level (six available). I started it up and away I went.

As with any type of equipment like this, running it at full speed made it easier to cut through the turf. Earlier in the summer, when we had no rain and the ground was so hard (we've got heavy clay soil here), it wasn't quite so easy to do the edging. Not impossible, but with just a little rain to soften things up a bit, it was so much easier, so I waited to do the edging until after we'd gotten some rain.

I found that the best way to get a nice edge on a bed that badly needed it was to run the edger twice. Set the bevel, run it along the line where you want your edge, then run it again along the existing edge. This created a loosened wedge of grass and dirt that I then simply pulled away and discarded, leaving me with that nice edge I wanted.

Adjustable curb wheel

Another feature that this edger has is the adjustable curb wheel, making it easier to edge along a curb. We don't have curbs, so we didn't adjust this wheel, but it's easy enough to do. In fact, my husband and I both found everything about the edger pretty easy to do and we got the look we wanted with it.

Would we recommend the TB554 Edger? Absolutely, with no hesitation. You can read more details about the edger here.

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Now, the best part for you! Troy-Bilt is providing an edger just like the one they sent to me, to one of my readers! All you have to do is:

1. Leave a comment here, telling me if you do anything special to edge your garden beds.

AND

2. Fill out the Rafflecopter form with your contact information.

The giveaway will end on Wednesday, September 19th, at midnight EDT. HEY! That's my birthday! How cool is that? Troy-Bilt gives YOU an edger for MY birthday! They're awesome that way. Now go enter...

*The products that I've tested for Troy-Bilt® have been provided to me free of charge. The Saturday 6 partnership that I have with Troy-Bilt® includes monetary compensation. Any opinions expressed by me regarding Troy-Bilt® products or events are my own.

I'm an edging fanatic. Not that I LIKE edging but I sort of get a tear in my eye when I see sharply edged beds. You can have a garden full of weeds but if it's perfectly edged it looks pretty good.This year I bought a small electric edger but this would be soooooo much better!

Use elbow grease & a flat shovel. Consequently, it gets done about once a summer. Love the way your edging looks, Kylee!!Most attractive thing about the Troy-Bilt Edger--It's easy to start. Gives me great satisfaction to be able to start a machine like this on my own!!

I actually hired someone to edge all my beds this year. Local guy does lawnmowing and some landscaping, and only charged $70 to do ALL of my beds, trees etc. GREAT deal...but if I pay him that every year - eh, maybe it'll be time to buy something like this. (Or win it!)

I just use a spade to trench the edge of my beds, but I find that I need to redo most of them in midsummer, when it's really hard to do. And my edges aren't very neat. I would love a tool like this to help me shape up my beds!

I love the way a nice clean edge looks on flowerbeds, and the bevel option sounds like a great idea. So you go around your beds twice to get a nice sharp edge?I also have trouble pull starting equipement, It would be great to have an edger that I could start and use without asking my husband to start it for me! This sounds like a piece of equipment that would get a lot of use at my house.

First Happy Birthday! Second a gift for me on your birthday would be a great thing, I would love to have this Troy-Built Edger. My wife Jenny and I bought our first home three years ago and she has been teaching me to garden and care for all things green. It would be nice to have this tool to give our new flower beds that perfect edged look!Sign us up!Thank you.

We usually do it by shovel. We don't really have true curbs here - just a concrete rain ditch between the street and our property so any edging is done with manual hard labor. This would be a great help and save on the back breaking :D

Every spring/summer I get out in the yard [3/4 acre] and edge the entire lawn/flowerbeds/garden area only using a 9" half-moon metal edger [w/wood handle], the bottom of my foot and hands. Then bi-weekly leading up to the Fall season I use a gas Troy-Bilt gas weed-eater to keep the edges nice and clean. A Troy-Bilt gas edger would definitely save me time and help to keep the yard maintained and even more beautiful year round.

Hello! I WISH I had a real edger! I use a round point shovel to scoop a wide border along my herb and flower beds. Then any thing that "jumps the ditch" gets chopped off with a hoe! LOL!I don't use chemicals in my garden.

I have never heard of edging the garden but mine sure could have used this thru the summer. I fought creeping grass which was so difficult doing to with a hoe. Our ground is largly clay and has to be loosened up or the water just runs off starving the roots. I need this badly!

This would be so beneficial to our garden. We have so many beds without the border 'definition' that a tool like this would give. Our biggest problem is invasive Bermuda grass, so maybe this would help with those deep underground runners. Thanks for the chance, Kylee!

I love your clear and direct explanation of using hand tools for lawn care.﻿ Excellent!It helps hold the munch into the inside, it helps keeps the grass come out from the outside. So as far as maintain our beds go good edging is one of the most important things.

I have tried several types of "edging". I love edging with stone, but my garden beds seem to be constantly evolving .... bigger, it seems. I think something like the Troy-Bilt edger would be a great tool to help maintain the edge of my edgeless edging!

I struggle with edging every year. This would be a dream come true. With the new flower beds my husband adds every year, this would make edging so much faster, I might have time to weed! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

About Me

Living and gardening in NW Ohio with my husband, ten cats, and six chickens, I was bitten by the gardening bug in 2005. It soon became my passion. Writing was next (2007) and the two joined forces. Now I write for a local newspaper, two regional gardening magazines, and am the book review editor for Horticulture magazine.

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